


Awash in Your Glow

by Mintly



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Fireflies, Fluff, Romance, War, rupphire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-27
Updated: 2015-11-27
Packaged: 2018-05-03 16:55:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5299076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mintly/pseuds/Mintly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the space between battles, hesitant and hoping, there is only the rustling of leaves and a moment caught between one heart and another. The night is aglow, and the war rages on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Awash in Your Glow

**Author's Note:**

> This is a drabble that got a little away from me. Inspired by [Jen-iii's amazing art](http://jen-iii.tumblr.com/post/132784575371/they-glow-too-sapphire-look-i-was-having-a)!

There hadn’t really been a celebration; it was just one battle, after all. The war was as endless as the night was new, and Earth’s sun had only just slid behind the distant tree line. Remnants of its rays remained, stretching long shadows over the ground beneath Ruby’s feet. The camp murmured, quiet as if their voices would wake them from a pleasant dream.

Ruby found Sapphire at the edge of the circle of hastily built tents, near the overgrown riot of plants that surrounded their troops as a barrier. Her dress was in perfect order; there was not a single stain of dirt on her from the battlefield, as if she had reformed. The thought tore something inside Ruby. Sapphire stood still as stone, every bit of her carved from marble.

“Hey,” Ruby said, a little loudly. She bit her tongue as if to call the greeting back, but Sapphire turned unhurriedly, unfazed by the interruption. Her bangs fell perfectly over her face to curl softly above the line of her cheekbones.

“Ruby.” The name tumbled like silk from Sapphire’s lips, easy and smooth. She reached out to touch the ripped shoulder of Ruby’s uniform. “You’re alright.”

Ruby elbowed her gently. “Did you think I’d go down so easily? You wound me.”

“Of course not. I’m just glad.” Sapphire dropped her hand. Ruby looked down at the ground. It was suddenly too much to look at her. The camp was silent now except for the whispers of the wind and the few gems who hadn’t needed to take rest. The shadows of blades of grass made giant like trees flitted over her boots.

Sapphire grabbed Ruby’s hand. Her gem pulsed with the contact, to her embarrassment. Sapphire didn’t notice, or at least she didn’t comment. She tugged her forward.

“Come with me. I have something to show you.”

The vegetation thickened as Ruby was pulled deeper into the field, to the point it could no longer be called a clearing. Grasses grew tall and dense, topped in soft tufts of seeds waving above their heads. Wildflowers had fought for the right to open sky among the tangled stems, their vibrant petals now pale and sleepy in the palette of twilight. They carved their own path through the underbrush, plants bending underfoot. Leaves brushed Ruby’s jaw and sharp thistle caught her ankles. She ignored them, watching the gentle sway of Sapphire’s hair with her walk, purposeful and delicate.

Sapphire stopped when the flora thinned to an open patch of grass, shaded by the boughs of a large tree tilting over a sloping hill. The grasping hands of its roots dug into the soil for purchase. She lowered herself between its digits, the moss her cushion and all the evening her throne.

“A tree?” Ruby asked, dropping gracelessly into the empty space beside her. A cicada whined above them.

“Excellent observation.”

“Is it a special tree?” Ruby looked up into its branches, but there was nothing but the silhouette of leaves.

“You guessed it.” Sapphire huffed, shaking her head. “Patience.” Ruby groaned and flopped onto the ground.

“Will I at least know it when I see it?”

Sapphire nodded, the slight movement difficult to make out in the darkness. The last vestiges of sunlight had dissolved into shadow, subtle shades defining the planes of Sapphire’s face, the pile of her skirt. From where she lay in the moss, the ruffled layers of petticoat tickled Ruby’s nose. She batted them away, and Sapphire looked down at her with amusement.

“Do you think it’s a good sign? That we won?” Ruby asked. It wasn’t the right thing to say. Sapphire sighed and leaned away, glancing back out to the field before them. The cicada quieted, and Ruby felt the loss keenly.

“I’d like to tell you that I knew, but I don’t. There’s a lot to consider. Fate will give us what it wills.”

“Sorry, that was a stupid question.”

“No, anyone would wonder.”

Sapphire held her hands in front of her loosely, and Ruby wanted to hold them between her own and apologize until her voice failed her. But that was too much, and it wasn’t a big deal. Sapphire wouldn’t appreciate it, but Ruby couldn’t just leave it be. She sat up, flexing her fingers at her sides.

It was then that she noticed the moon wasn’t the only glow illuminating their features. A spot of bright color pulsed over Sapphire’s right shoulder. Ruby scrambled backward, hand slipping on a root.

“What the hell was that?” Ruby shouted. Sapphire turned around to look, but the glow had faded. “There was a light and—”

It reappeared, further away near the path they had forged through the field. Ruby rolled to her feet, sliding into a defensive stance. Magic itched at her palm, her gauntlet a twitch away. Another glow pulsed at her left. And the right. And in front of her chest. They were everywhere, and Ruby was surrounded.

Behind the ringing in her ears, Ruby heard something. She whipped around. Sapphire was wheezing, holding her sides to keep herself whole. Panic flared in the pit of Ruby’s stomach, sharp like knives.

“Sapphire! What’s wrong?” Ruby kneeled before her and grabbed her shoulders. “What happened? Are you alright?” The lights flashed all around them in a frenzied dance, and Ruby ignored them. Sapphire had tears welling in her eye. Ruby swallowed.

Sapphire gave a loud snort, and something clicked for Ruby.

“You’re _laughing_?”

“Ruby,” Sapphire managed to say between the sobs of laughter. “They're–they’re just insects. Earth insects. Bio–bioluminescence. _Ruby._ ” Sapphire reached for Ruby’s face and pressed their foreheads together, not at all gently. The glow of her gem was nearly blinding so close to Ruby’s night-adjusted eyes. Ruby could scarcely care, worry and frustration forming a pit of heat in her stomach. Sapphire coughed, breath gasping out of her once more before she sighed and closed her eye.

“They come out at night during this part of the planet’s cycle. They’re called fireflies.”

“You could have warned me!”

“I wanted it to be a surprise.” Sapphire smiled, and Ruby melted.

“Well, you succeeded,” she muttered, warmth leaking into her voice. They were so close. Ruby swallowed and hoped her heating cheeks weren’t too evident beneath Sapphire’s hand. Steam drifted into the air. A vain hope, then.

Sapphire slipped away from Ruby to cup a firefly in her palms, plucking it from the air in one graceful motion. Flickering light emanated from between her fingers. Ruby lifted her hands as Sapphire lowered the insect to her. Ruby stared, mesmerized, as her gem pulsed slowly in time with Sapphire’s. The firefly blinked in answer.

“It’s like us, Sapphire. It glows like a gem!”

Ruby looked up to grin at Sapphire, but Sapphire was already watching her with a flush high on her cheeks, her bangs ruffled by the soft wind. The look she gave her was new, something unknown to the barren rock of Homeworld. It was the soft tumble of ocean waves and the bright chirp of crickets and the constant, quivering beat of the lights around them, alive and dancing. The thin stripe of the moon peppered Sapphire’s skin with drops of luminosity through the leaves of the tree. She shimmered, born of magic and submerged in its iridescence.

The pulse of Ruby’s gem sped, wild and stumbling and almost painfully strong. She had no name for this feeling—this dizzying, terrifying thing that rattled her breath and planted a seed of hope in the space between her shoulders. Her gem’s glow flashed deep purple across Sapphire’s expression with increasing intensity as the night spun around her faster and faster. She was giddy with emotion and with anticipation (Of what? What promise hid in the smooth lilt of Sapphire’s voice? In the curl of her eyelashes?), and suddenly the world tilted on its axis and the sky became Sapphire above her, a being made heaven with the strands of her hair falling around her face like rivulets of moonlight and miracles written in the curve of her lips.

“Sapphire?”

“Yes?” the angel said, her knees straddling Ruby’s torso.

Grass tickled the back of Ruby’s neck from where she now lay at the base of the hill. An insect buzzed nearby, and solid earth pressed against her back. Bright emotions spun furiously inside her, but her mind was clear as she rested her hand on Sapphire’s thigh, exposed by their tumble.

“You know better than me, but do you ever think fate leans a little?”

“What do you mean?”

“Toward the good things. Or just certain things—the ones you put your mind to.”

“Fate is fate, and I can’t see its intentions. But it might.” Sapphire tipped her head, eye sparkling in the soft glow of the fireflies.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Sapphire repeated, warmth saturating her tone. Ruby grinned to hear it.

“I think so. How else could I be so lucky finding a star as pretty as you on a night like tonight?”

Sapphire shoved Ruby’s shoulder. Her other hand curled over her mouth, giggles spilling between her fingers.

“You’re horrible,” she said, but her toothy smile gleamed in the glow of her gem, bright with her mirth. Ruby’s own gem shone against the fabric of Sapphire’s skirt. Their lights pulsed in sync with each other and the fireflies around them, spinning their rhythmic dance between the sky and the earth.

“The worst,” Ruby agreed, as something warm and glowing settled in her chest.


End file.
